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I have one of these:

https://www.specialisedcovers.com/stormshield-plus-car-cover


It's pretty well-made and fits nicely. I can't see an option for big wing there tho, so might be worth contacting them to ask if they have a pattern for it.

Rick

I will, I just wasn't sure if it was something a rotary specialist would be particularly expert in - seems a bit of a niche market, and the garage that does all the other work on my FD doesn't want to touch the rust stuff.

Ah well, back to searching - good to know it's doable though, thanks!

South-east ish - kinda near Dover. Don't mind travelling though, would rather get 'good' than 'local'.

It's more a lack of time/space here - I don't have either Wouldn't rule out welding being required, and happy to get it done if it needs it. I just want it done properly so I don't get this again a few years down the line (other than respraying waxoyl or something).

Is there anywhere you'd recommend for it? I can find a bunch of classic car places online, but I'd prefer to find somewhere someone's used before for this sort of work.

Hi everyone!

So I've had my FD (1997 type RS) for nearly 15 years now, and at its last MOT the mechanic mentioned there's a little bit of rust going on underneath on the chassis. The car doesn't move that often and it's kept by the seaside, so this isn't entirely unexpected: I had it waxoyl'd when I got it, but, well, that was a long time ago.

What I'm after is:
- suggestions on what to do about it
- recommendations on who I can get to do it

I was thinking something along the lines of blast it all down and seal it, but I'm not sure what's best. My goal is to have this car forever, basically (it's an occasional track day car with minimal road miles) so I'd like to deal with this thoroughly.

Any advice or comments appreciated,

Rick

I was just thinking "I should\'ve brought my FD" when I walked past one in the car park. It even had a MazdaRotaryClub thing on the parcel shelf, so it must be someone on here

Thanks for the advice guys.

Hi Iain!
I\'ve been meaning to get up to an MRC South meet, but it barely seems worth it without the car If I had the money, I\'d have gone single when I did the rebuild. But I\'m still a student RX7 owner (PhD\'s not due to finish until next year some time) and the money situation isn\'t great.

At least if I buy a turbo pack off someone I\'ll get two shots at it, only one of mine\'s duff

Hi Clive!

I\'ve still got the rotary bug too bad to consider a piston replacement

I\'ve been back to the engine builder a number of times. It\'s a local place - the owner\'s a genuine car enthusiast, had been doing some other work on the car and has worked on first gens before. I lent him the turrentine rebuild dvds and I got to see how work progressed on it. I\'ve got a bunch of pictures of it too, I keep meaning to sort them out. We\'re both trying to work out what\'s wrong, and I don\'t think I\'ll end up paying much to get it sorted.

I\'d love to have had a go at it myself, but I just don\'t have the space right now. It must be a great feeling to know you built your own engine.

Heyas,

After a couple of years of blissful FD ownership, I finally went through my first rebuild towards the end of last year. I\'ve had the car back since May, and I ran it in for a good thousand miles or so before putting my foot down.

Something\'s broken

On WOT, it pulls fine up to somewhere around 4-4.5k revs, but then it stops pulling and I get quite a lot of white-ish smoke out of the exhaust. It smells pretty bad at this point (burnt oil I guess?).

Now, it doesn\'t do this if I accelerate slowly up to 7k revs (ie, no boost), and there\'re no symptoms at all below 4k. It\'s been suggested that the oil seals on the 2nd turbo have gone, hence it\'s dumping oil direct into the exhaust, and the smoke. This fits with observations. The engine itself seems fine - it\'s not really using much oil now (driving <4k revs nearly all the time, and not driving a lot anyway) and there\'s no problem with coolant levels (rebuild was down to coolant seals, but that\'s all good now).

Is there anything else it\'s likely to be? Perhaps something with the oil injectors? I\'m running stock twins - how much should I expect to pay for a replacement turbo, or would I be better off getting the existing one reconditioned?

Any advice would be much appreciated,

Rick

Driving to Canterbury today (first time out in my FD for a month or so) I passed a tidy looking silver FD on the road towards Ramsgate. Anyone on here? I got flashed but I was too shocked by the sight of another FD to reach the stalk in time

Traffic to Ramsgate is silly now, stupid temporary lights.

Rick

Hope the motor is done soon for ya, who\'s doing the build?

I was sorely tempted to have a go myself (I\'ve got the rebuild DVDs and so on) but I just don\'t have the space. Sam\'s Garage in Canterbury, over at Wincheap, are doing it. I know some of the guys there and I can pop over a lot from work to see how it\'s going.

It\'s been off the road three months now - endless waits for parts it seems, but I wouldn\'t have driven it over winter anyway. Looking out the window, I wouldn\'t fancy it today either. Hopefully it\'ll be sunny when I\'m finally zooming around in it again.

Also, an east Kent meet would be great. I\'ve been up to a few of the Dartford ones, and they\'ve been fun, but it\'s a bit of a trek for a weekday night.

Heh, if you\'re in Whitstable that explains why I keep seeing your FD around  - looking at your pic that\'s definitely the one

My FD\'s down for rebuild at the moment But hopefully it\'ll finally be done in the next couple of weeks.

My bet on that\'s about 280 atw - the downpipe\'s meant to have quite an impact - but I don\'t really know how much difference the porting will make. WGT have a really good rep so my guess might be a bit on the low side.

I think you\'ll get a bit more than that - the filters and hard pipes won\'t do much, but not having a cat in there will free up the exhaust nicely. I\'m guessing 310 at flywheel or so (mine was 298 at the FDUK rolling road day last year, and that\'s stock+powerFC with the cat in).

I\'d maybe think about fuelling next (injectors, fuel pump), or possibly cooling (radiator) - better to play safe on that sort of stuff.

Shouldn\'t I do the negative rather than the positive?

I have a feeling my multimeter does the wrong current range anyway (sigh)

The magic eye thing on the battery seems to claim it\'s alright (although it\'s hardly the clearest of indicators). I don\'t have a proper battery tester although I\'ve got a multimeter here.